Which scans are best to detect lobular

Hi Intheclub,



The way I understand it it is difficult to spot IN the breasts. If there are metastases they show up in the bones or liver or other organs just like ductal metastases do on scans.

Hi intheclub, I had my own frustration from scans.  My breast ultrasound measured my tumor at 4 cm.  I was told that the most accurate measurement is the Breast MRI.  My Breast MRI measured it at 7 cm!  As you know we are talking about 2 different stages here and this news probably took about 10 years off of my life.  

Post surgery, pathology showed the true size of my tumor was 4.8!  

A CT was done on me also.  All sorts of things lit up (thyroid, fluid over my heart, something on lung) that were really of no concern.  Had a thyroid ultrasound which showed only a nodule.  Was told to come back in 6 months to recheck on all.  

My dad just went through similar issues.  His Pet scan showed lymph nodes lighting up.  Had them biopsied.  Negative thank God.

So, we went through multiple scares by putting our faith in the scans.  The biopsies unfortunately show the positive or negative.

My Mammogram and breast ultrasound diagnosed my tumor as 0.7 cm so lumpectomy scheduled, awoke to find the had closed me up as they couldn't get clear margins due to multiple tumors. Largest tumor was 4.5 cm, breast MRI done which accurately showed remaining landscape and final surgery booked for a week later to do mastectomy.



This was last November, I have opted to have a breast MRI this coming November instead of the mammogram/ultrasound as I want to know I am still clear before I move to the every two year Breast MRI routine.



I've also had PET scan as my first oncologist (who I sacked) announced within two minutes of meeting me that my cancer had progressed to my neck. This turned out to be post operative swelling as the 8 procedures over 10 days was within 10 days post op (so no wonder my lymph nodes were swollen, they matched everything else at that time).

lobular breast cancer does not uptake the glucose used for the PET scans and they also can pick up inflammation in the body so cannot be used alone as a diagnostic tool for BC.

MRIs are the best for picking up Metastatic areas but you have to wait until symptoms show up and then scan the area in question. You cannot just randomly scan the whole body with MRI .

CTs with contrast are the best for Lobular, but there is no scan that is perfect . Lots can Be missed with lobular as it grows in single file fashion instead of forming nodules. It also is more frequent to metastasize to within the peritoneal space than other types.

My ILC wasn't shown up on mammogram, but shown up on Ultrasound and MR

I've seen a research study that says a FAST MRI protocol (just about 7 minutes!) can be as effective at screening for breast cancer as the typical long one.

This is great from both a cost perspectiveand for those of us who have trouble tolerating the traditional long ones because of claustrophobia.

Has anyone actually had one of these FAST MRIs? I've been looking to see if any place near me offers it, but haven't had much luck.